What you may have missed: Updates from Sunday

Nov. 11, 2012

Written by

Staff and wire reports

8:15 p.m. Sunday: Lautenberg says Amtrak to open North Tube on Monday

U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg said today that Amtrak will reopen the tunnel under the Hudson River known as the North Tube for increased Amtrak and New Jersey Transit commuter rail service starting Monday.

The North Tube was shut down immediately following superstorm Sandy, severely limiting passenger rail access to and from New York City. Though open on Monday, the tunnel is expected to operate at 63 percent of its normal capacity while further work is ongoing.

“It’s good news for New Jersey that the tunnel is reopening, but damage remains and we won’t stop working until full service is restored for rail passengers,” Lautenberg said.

“The damage this storm did to our tunnels and transit system reminds us how important passenger rail service is to our way of life and our regional economy. Thousands of workers spent extra hours commuting, highways were further choked with more car traffic and many businesses were hurt. We must learn from this lesson and work even harder to strengthen and expand our rail infrastructure so that we are prepared the next time.”

On Nov. 7, Lautenberg wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging that his administration provide Amtrak and New Jersey Transit with all available resources to reopen the tunnel and restore full rail service to the Northeast Corridor.

Commuters with questions about their commute this week should visit www.njtransit.com or www.amtrak.com for more information about upcoming train schedules.

8 p.m. Sunday: More school districts expected to reopen on Monday

Following is a list of school districts in Monmouth and Ocean counties that are expected to reopen for classes this week. Unless otherwise indicated, reopenings are scheduled for Monday, Nov. 12:

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• Asbury Park

• Atlantic Highlands

• Belmar

• Brick

• Central Regional

• Fair Haven

• Freehold Regional

• Freehold Township

• Hazlet

• Howell

• Keansburg: Classes are expected to resume Tuesday.

• Lakewood

• Little Silver

• Long Branch

• Manalapan-Englishtown

• Manasquan

• Marlboro

• Middletown: Classes are expected to resume Tuesday.

• Monmouth Beach: Starting today, Monmouth Beach Elementary School will send students to the following schools:

• PreK-Kindergarten – Wolfe Hill School in Oceanport

• Grades 1,2,3 – Betty McElmon School in West Long Branch

• Grade 4 – Frank Antonides School in West Long Branch

• Grades 5-8 – Shore Regional High School

• Monmouth County Vocational School District: The district anticipates re-opening today, except for MAST students, who are expected to be relocated to St. Joseph’s school in Keyport and to resume classes Tuesday.

• Monmouth Regional

• Ocean County Vocational-Technical Schools

• Pinelands Regional

• Point Pleasant Borough

• Ranney School

• Red Bank Catholic High School

• Red Bank Regional High School

• Rumson Country Day School

• Shore Regional

• Stafford

• Tinton Falls

• Toms River Regional

• Wall

• Waretown

7:45 p.m. Sunday: Landmark Keyport business destroyed by Sandy

Whether at the supermarket or on the street, when people recognize Paul Aversa, they ask him whether he will make a comeback.

Aversa is no washed-up celebrity, though – he slices the meats and cheese at Mike’s Sub Shop on West Front Street, a Keyport institution.

Or at least he used to, until superstorm Sandy destroyed his family’s 51-year-old business. On Sunday, workers finished demolishing what the storm’s flood waters and winds did not.

“People feel so strongly, they grab my arm and tell me I have to come back,” said Aversa, 56, of Aberdeen, who co-owns the business with his brother, Augustine. “And we’ve got to get back. It’s not a job: it’s a life.”

The Keyport store was one of four Mike’s Subs locations opened by Mike Ingravallo in the region during the 1950s, Aversa said. Ingravallo sold the Keyport location to Aversa’s father, Augustine “Gus” Aversa, in 1961, he said.

Hurricane Sandy ripped apart the auditorium in which it was housed, but the storm couldn’t silence a century-old pipe organ in Ocean Grove.

Organ curator John Shaw inspected the organ last week and gave it a clean bill of health, Neptune Township announced in a news release.

Shaw and Gordon Turk, the organist at Ocean Grove’s Great Auditorium, said they received dozens of messages from organ aficionados worldwide inquiring about the organ, after Hurricane Sandy tore off parts of the auditorium roof.

“The damage to the auditorium was a shock,” Turk said. “It’s such a special building, for so many wonderful reasons.”

Shaw determined on Monday that the organ sustained no significant damage from the storm. He said the blowers are functioning properly, as are the console and the organ’s 11,500 pipes, but the wind chest won’t be fully tested until the spring.

LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP -- An insurance adjuster photographing damage on a Brant Beach home fell 15 feet off a roof, police said.

The 60-year-old Wood, Texas, man - whose name is being withheld pending notification of his family - was on the second floor of the West 59th Street home taking photographs when the ladder beneath him shifted and slid away, according to police. He fell about 15 feet to a first-floor landing.

He was conscious, alert and complaining of pain when police arrived.

Beach Haven First Aid Squad transported the man to the Ethel Jacobsen School in Ship Bottom, where a medevac helicopter flew him to the trauma center at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, police said.

The man's condition was immediately available.

4:50 p.m. Sunday: Delaware Bay shellfish beds to reopen Monday

TRENTON – The Department of Environmental Protection will reopen shellfish beds in Delaware Bay that have been closed as a precaution since Oct. 30 as a result of Hurricane Sandy, Commissioner Bob Martin announced today.

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Commissioner Martin is signing an order reopening the beds in Delaware Bay from Cape May Point to Lower Alloways Creek at sunrise on Monday following water monitoring and tissue sampling that found no issues with bacteria contamination as a result of the storm.

The DEP is reviewing water monitoring data from Atlantic coastal waters from Barnegat Inlet south to Cape May Point and expects to soon make a decision on reopening those shellfish beds within several days.

If the results of shellfish tissue testing show that there are no issues with viruses or bacteria, additional shellfish beds will be reopened.

Beds in the Raritan Bay-Sandy Hook area remain closed until further notice due to ongoing discharges of partially treated and untreated wastewater resulting from storm damage to treatment plants and pump stations. Shellfish beds in Barnegat Bay north of Barnegat Inlet also remain closed due to elevated levels of bacteria resulting from stormwater runoff.

The DEP is continuing to monitor water quality and will make a determination on reopening shellfish beds in these areas when appropriate.

“The shellfish industry is very important to the state, supporting some 5,800 full-time jobs and pumping $876 million into the economy,” Commissioner Martin said. “I commend the industry for working cooperatively with us to protect public health during one of the greatest periods of crisis New Jersey has ever faced. We will continue to work with the industry to reopen all of our shellfish beds as soon as it is safe to do so.”

The DEP monitors more than 720,000 acres of commercial shellfish beds in the state’s ocean waters and estuaries as well as all recreational harvesting. Bivalves in these beds such as clams, oysters and mussels are filter feeders that can accumulate harmful bacteria carried into waterways.

The DEP works with the New Jersey Department of Health and U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ensure that shellfish are safely harvested in state waters. The New Jersey Department of Health Food Safety Program regularly inspects shellfish processing plants to ensure they follow regulations that outline health and safety precautions. Shellfish samples are regularly collected from harvest areas, certified shellfish dealers and retailers for bacteriological examination.

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The program oversees a certification program which requires all wholesale shellfish dealers to handle, process, and ship shellfish under sanitary conditions and maintain records verifying that the shellfish were obtained from approved areas.

For more information, including a map of reopened shellfish beds, visit:

4 p.m.: Island Access for Property Owners and Residents

Mayor Bill Akers: I am happy to let you know that we are making an attempt to allow certain private vehicles into Seaside Heights starting tomorrow, November 12. Please, I must stress that if we do not get massive cooperation, this plan will be ended as soon as it was started. Starting tomorrow, any Seaside Heights property owner as well as all of those residents who were scheduled for the bus on Monday may go directly in to town with their own vehicles between the hours of 8am and 3pm. Be sure to bring identification, and you may also bring a friend, contractor, insurance adjuster or other person(s) who may be helpful, in the same vehicle.

While in town, you must only stay at your own property. There will be no access to the beach or boardwalk, and you may not leave town. Attempting to enter Ortley Beach or Seaside Park will subject you to arrest. There is a temporary speed limit in town of 5 miles per hour and you must consider every intersection a 4 way stop. There are no traffic signals operating and many of the street signs are missing or mis-directed. Again, please show respect and consideration while in town so that this program can continue and everyone can start the re-building process. The curfew of 3pm will be strictly enforced and everyone must leave town by that time.

3:30 p.m. Power update

There were 48 JCP&L customers who remained on Sunday morning without power in Aberdeen, down from 856 customers Friday.

About five customers remained without power Sunday morning in Allenhurst.

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Nine homes remained without power in Atlantic Highlands, JCP&L reported Sunday morning.

Police Chief Terry Mahon said power has been restored to most homes in Avon, with the exception of those with extensive electrical damage. JCP&L reported 23 homes without power here Sunday morning.

Belmar Mayor Matthew Doherty said while clean up efforts are going extremely well throughout the borough, frustration still lies with with near 20 percent of the town still without power Sunday morning.

“The fact that we have so many people still without heat and without electricity and this is the fourteenth day after the storm is unacceptable,” Doherty said.

Bay Head: Bulk Garbage

Starting Monday, Nov. 12, large bulk items will be picked up by a contractor acting on behalf of the borough. Please place items by the curb, but in the street.

Council Meeting - we will have a special Borough Council meeting on Wednesday, November 14th at ten o'clock in the morning at the fire house. All are encouraged to attend.

Message from New Jersey Natural Gas: We have completed our assessments of main in the shut-off portion of our system from Bay Head to Seaside. Due to the extensive damage in this area, lack of access remains an issue, but we have been able to complete 65 percent of our service assessments. We are developing our re-pressurization plan, and our installation plan for the main that was damaged near the Mantoloking Bridge.

New Jersey Natural Gas: If you still do not have gas, please call 800-222-0051.

JCP and L: The power company is still working in our area. For service status, please call the company directly at 888-544-4877.

FEMA: We encourage all residents to register with FEMA by calling 800-621-3362.

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:50 p.m. Residents attempt to move on after trauma of Sandy

Laura Dubois couldn’t just settle back into her old routine in the days following Hurricane Sandy.

The Monmouth University professor of music said her home suffered relatively minimal damage. The lights were out and tree branches were in her yard. She’s OK physically, her loved ones are safe and now she’s back at work.

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But none of that could stop depression and emotional pain from creeping in after the storm left hundreds of thousands displaced or without power.

Dubois joined a group of about 15 other people Saturday night at the Unity by the Shore nondenominational church off Asbury Avenue. During an intense two-hour session, she learned her feelings of despair were shared by other residents, and together they took the first steps in working through emotional trauma.

“I can’t believe how much better I’m feeling,” she said after the event was over. I feel warm again. I feel like I’m going to be able to go out again and help others. I felt like something was really broken inside me and I feel like I’ve been restored.”

11:57 Mancave event in Union Beach to offer food, football on TV

Mancave Events will be on the lawn at Union Beach Borough Hall Sunday to have a free tailgate for people who have been displaced by Hurricane Sandy. There will be a trailer with three big-screen TVs to watch football (DirecTV NFL RedZone), grill with food, corn hole, Kan Jam, etc. It starts at 12:15 p.m. and runs through 7:15 p.m.11:45 a.m.

7:30 a.m. Power restoration to be completed by Sunday night

JCP&L is reporting power restoration to the majority of mainland customers in our region, with the exception of areas where service wires to individual homes needs to replaced. Those restorations are expected to be complete by late Sunday night.

The Sunday morning restoration report shows 9,552 more Monmouth County and 8,493 Ocean County customers were brought on line Saturday.

Almost 30,000 Barrier Island and shore towns heavily hit by superstorm Sandy remains dark due to ongoing work to repair transmission systems.

“While progress has been made in repairing the transmission system to this area, JCP&L continues working with state and local officials on developing and implementing a full restoration plan and timeline to connect affected customers safely,” officials said in a written statement.

As of 7 a.m. Sunday, the company’s power outage website shows an additional 20,010 Monmouth County and 22,415 Ocean County customers remain without power.

Company officials have said estimated bills are being sent to those who lost service during superstorm Sandy and last week’s nor’easter.

Although extended outages are not factored in the estimated bills, an automatic adjustment will be done during the next meter reading.